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Comcast Buying Other 49% of NBCUniversal From GE in $18.1 Billion Deal

All those jokes on “30 Rock” about selling microwaves are now officially dated. Comcast has agreed to buy out GE’s 49% stake in NBC Universal.

In the mostly-cash deal, the cable operator will pay $16.7 billion for the equity stake GE hung onto after the December 2009 sale that turned NBC Universal into a joint venture. Another $1.4 billion will go toward purchasing NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and CNBC’s offices in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

The deal was a foregone conclusion, with only the timing to be worked out. Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis said last September that it would happen sometime before a deadline in 2014, at which point GE could exercise an option forcing Comcast to buy half its stake.

Comcast has recently been aggressively remaking the management team it inherited from GE. It recently appointed Bonnie Hammer to head up all the NBCUniversal cable channel. Meanwhile, longtime NBC News president Steve Capus stepped down after having seen most of his power assumed by Patricia Fili-Kruschel.

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